JP2001308917A - Traffic controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a traffic controller that applies transmission control to various packet data with a proper priority by considering not only a high/low level of real time performance but also the peculiarity of days of the week, month and year and time zones. SOLUTION: A part of a transmission system where a communication packet is transmitted to a desired destination address via routers, is provided with a means that stores packet transmission time data by days and time zones depending on at least each router path as a table and with a control means that references the transmission time data of this table by each packet type so as to conduct transmission control.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a traffic control device in a communication network, and more particularly, to an improvement in packet transmission.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Data transmitted via the Internet includes data for which real-time characteristics are not so important, such as browsing a homepage or e-mail, and real-time characteristics, such as telephone voice data and broadcast moving image data. High data is mixed.

[0003] For data with high real-time properties,
If a large fluctuation occurs in the communication delay time or a missing communication packet occurs, accurate data cannot be reproduced on the receiving side. Therefore, with respect to data with high real-time properties, communication is performed by securing a necessary band of a communication channel in advance based on the concept of “bandwidth guarantee”.

However, in securing the bandwidth, (a) securing the bandwidth in all the lines between the transmitter and the receiver, (b) lowering the bandwidth utilization efficiency due to securing the bandwidth at the maximum value of the variable traffic (c) ) Problems such as an increase in processing load to secure bandwidth have been pointed out.

[0005] In addition to the bandwidth guarantee, a value indicating the level of priority is added to each communication packet, and transmission of a communication packet having a high real-time property is controlled as a communication packet having a high priority. A method for improving the reliability of a communication packet with a high degree has also been proposed.

However, in this case, a communication packet with a high priority is treated preferentially on all transmission paths that pass through it, while a communication packet with a low priority has a low priority on all transmission paths. Will be treated. Since the degree of importance of communication packets is represented by fixed parameters of high and low priority, high-priority communication packets will be processed more than necessary, and the communication fee will increase accordingly. I will.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention focuses on such a problem, and aims at not only the level of real-time performance but also the specificity of day of the week, month, year, and time zone. It is another object of the present invention to provide a traffic control device capable of controlling transmission of various types of packet data at an appropriate priority in consideration of the above.

[0008]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a transmission system for transmitting a communication packet to a desired destination address via a router. Means for tabulating and storing packet transmission time data for each day and time zone for each router path, and control means for performing transmission control by referring to the transmission time data in this table for each type of packet,
Is a traffic control device characterized by having the following.

[0009] This makes it possible to perform appropriate transmission control in consideration of the statistical packet transmission time data for each day and time zone of the transmission path.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the traffic control apparatus according to the first aspect, means for determining a transmission time for each received communication packet based on identification data of the transmission router and transmission time data in each router or in the vicinity thereof, Means for adding identification data of the router itself and transmission time data to a communication packet to be relayed and transmitted.

As a result, transmission time data between each router and each transmitting router can be obtained at or near each router.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided the traffic control apparatus according to the second aspect, further comprising means for returning transmission time data measured by the receiving router to a predetermined transmitting router based on the identification data. I do.

As a result, transmission time data up to each receiving router is fed back to each transmitting router.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the traffic control device according to the third aspect, the transmission time data returned from the receiving router is stored in a table for each of the router paths for each day and time zone. .

Thus, each transmission router can perform transmission control based on transmission time data for each day and time zone to each reception router.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the traffic control apparatus according to the second aspect, further comprising control means for collectively collecting transmission time data measured by each router, tabulating the transmission time data for each router, and distributing the table. I do.

Thus, the load associated with data processing and transmission processing of each router can be reduced.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the traffic control device according to the second aspect, identification data and transmission time data of each relay router itself are sequentially added to a communication packet to be relayed and transmitted.

Thus, each router can obtain transmission time data for each transmission path as needed.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the traffic control apparatus according to the second aspect, upstream data is sequentially rewritten when adding identification data and transmission time data of each relay router itself to a communication packet to be relayed and transmitted. It is characterized by the following.

Thus, the identification data and transmission time data of each relay router added to the communication packet in each transmission path can be minimized.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, in the traffic control device according to the first aspect, at least one of route selection, bandwidth control, packet saving, and packet discarding is executed in transmission control.

As a result, appropriate traffic control can be performed in consideration of not only the type of the communication packet but also the statistical peculiarity of the transmission time unique to the day and the time zone.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, in the traffic control apparatus according to the first aspect, the daily data includes a day of the week, a month,
It is characterized by including at least one statistical data for the year.

Thus, it is possible to grasp the peculiarity of each time zone on a specific day, such as a new week, a weekend, a month beginning, a month end, a period beginning, a year end, a new year, a holiday, etc., for each transmission path.

[0026]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of a system for transmitting a packet to which the present invention is applied.
An example is shown below. In the figure, a subscriber A and a subscriber B are connected to a network via a plurality of routers R, and each subscriber can transmit a communication packet to a desired destination address via the routers R.

According to the present invention, in order to grasp the peculiarity of each time zone on a specific day such as the beginning of the week, the end of the month, the end of the month, the end of the month, the end of the year, the end of the year, the beginning of the year, etc. Then, the communication packet to which the time stamp is selectively added is transmitted, and the packet transmission time data between the respective transmission paths is collected and stored based on the time stamp. The communication packet to which the time stamp is added may be transmitted as a special packet for testing, or may be used for testing by sampling a communication packet to be relay-transmitted.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram focusing on the function of the router R according to the present invention, and is divided into a reception processing unit 10 and a transmission processing unit 20 for convenience of explanation. Reception processing unit 10
Includes a management data extracting unit 11 for extracting management data such as a transmission address, a destination address, a relay address, a data type, and a time stamp from a received communication packet, and a management data storage for storing the extracted management data. Unit 12, a transmission time calculating unit 13 for obtaining a transmission time from the identification data of the upstream router and the transmission time data for the received communication packet, and tabulating the transmission time data returned from the downstream router by router route and by daily time zone A transmission time editing unit 14 and the like are provided.

The transmission processing unit 20 includes a management data adding unit 2 for adding management data such as a time stamp indicating transmission date and time and self identification data to a communication packet to be relayed and transmitted.
1. A transmission time storage unit 22 for storing packet transmission time measurement data for each router route in the transmission direction and for each day and time zone tabulated by the transmission time editing unit 14, and a management stored in the management data storage unit 12. A route selection unit 23 that selects an appropriate transmission router route according to the type of the packet based on the data and the transmission time data stored in the transmission time storage unit 22, between the upstream router measured by the transmission time calculation unit 13 A transmission time returning unit 24 for returning the transmission time data of the above to a predetermined upstream router based on the identification data is provided.

Here, it is assumed that the daily data includes at least one of the statistical data of the day of the week, the month, and the year.

As a result, it is possible to grasp the specificity of each time zone on a specific day, such as the beginning of the week, the end of the month, the beginning of the month, the end of the month, the end of the year, the end of the year, the beginning of the year, and the holidays.

The function shown in FIG. 2 is desirably provided in each router R shown in FIG. 1 if possible. However, in some cases, the function shown in FIG. By providing the router R with the function as shown in FIG. 2, it is possible to take into account the statistical packet transmission time data for each day and time zone when selecting a transmission path. More appropriate transmission control can be performed as compared with the route selection control for fixing the priority. Specifically, for example, even if a packet has a higher priority in the data type, if the statistical transmission time data of the time zone of the day hardly finds a significant difference in the width of the bandwidth,
It can be transmitted over a low-cost narrow-band path.

When the identification data and transmission time data of each relay router are added to the communication packet to be relayed and transmitted, the data may be sequentially added or the data upstream may be rewritten.

By successively adding, transmission time data for each transmission path can be obtained at each router as needed. Further, if the data upstream is sequentially rewritten, the identification data and transmission time data of each relay router itself added to the communication packet in each transmission path can be minimized.

In order to obtain transmission time data, a known technique, ICPM (Internet Control Message) is used.
Age protocol) may be used to determine the round trip time required for inter-device transmission, and half of the round trip time may be used for one way. According to this,
Although the accuracy is slightly reduced, it can be measured easily.

Alternatively, the packet may be sampled by hardware without using such a protocol, a time stamp may be added, and transmission time data may be obtained based on the time stamp.

The transmission control at each router is not limited to the selection of a route. The bandwidth of the line is dynamically changed according to the situation, and the packet is temporarily saved and held when the line is busy. If the line is busy for a certain period of time, at least one of processing such as discarding depending on the type of packet is included.

Thus, appropriate traffic control can be performed in consideration of not only the type of the communication packet but also the statistical peculiarity of the transmission time peculiar to the day and the time zone.

Further, a part of the transmission system using the ISP as a unit may be provided with control means for collectively collecting transmission time data measured by each router, and then tabulating and transmitting the data for each router. .

As a result, the load associated with data processing and transmission processing of each router can be reduced as compared with the configuration shown in FIG.

The present invention is not limited to the transmission system using the ISP as a unit as shown in FIG. 1, but is also effective for the transmission control in the intranet as shown in FIG.

The present invention can be effectively applied to the Internet that extends over a plurality of ISPs by appropriately transmitting necessary transmission time data between the ISPs.

Further, in the above embodiment, a router has been described, but the technical idea of the present invention can be applied to a router that substantially functions as a router.

[0044]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Provides a traffic control device that can control the transmission of various types of packet data with appropriate priorities in consideration of the specificity of the day of the week, month, year, and time zone without being restricted by the level of the real-time nature of communication packets Can, IS
This is effective for maintaining and managing the transmission quality of the P network and intranet.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of a packet transmission system to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a function of a router R according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram showing another example of a transmission system to which the present invention is applied.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 reception processing unit 11 management data extraction unit 12 management data storage unit 13 transmission time calculation unit 14 transmission time editing unit 20 transmission processing unit 21 management data addition unit 22 transmission time storage unit 23 route selection unit 24 transmission time return unit

Continued on the front page F term (reference) 5K030 GA02 HA08 HB15 HB16 HC14 HD03 HD06 KA07 LC01 LC09 LC11 LC15 LD18 MB06 5K033 AA01 CB06 CB08 DA05 DB12 DB19 EA07 EC04

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A transmission system for transmitting a communication packet to a desired destination address via a router, wherein at least a part of the transmission system tabulates at least packet transmission time data for each day time zone for each router path. A traffic control device comprising: a storage unit; and a control unit that performs transmission control by referring to transmission time data in this table for each packet type. 2. A means for determining the transmission time of a received communication packet based on the identification data of the transmitting router and the transmission time data at each router or in the vicinity thereof, and the identification data of the router itself and the transmission time data in the communication packet to be relayed and transmitted. 2. The traffic control device according to claim 1, further comprising: 3. The traffic control apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising means for returning transmission time data measured by the receiving router to a predetermined transmitting router based on the identification data. 4. The traffic control apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the transmission time data returned from the receiving router is stored in a table for each router route and for each day time zone. 5. The traffic control apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising control means for collectively collecting transmission time data measured by each router, making a table for each router, and distributing the data in a table. 6. The traffic control device according to claim 2, wherein identification data and transmission time data of each relay router are sequentially added to the communication packet to be relayed and transmitted. 7. The traffic control apparatus according to claim 2, wherein upstream data is sequentially rewritten when adding identification data of each relay router and transmission time data to a communication packet to be relayed and transmitted. 8. In transmission control, route selection, band control,
2. The traffic control device according to claim 1, wherein at least one of packet saving and packet discarding is performed. 9. The traffic control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the daily data includes at least one of day, month, and year statistical data.